Sound Therapy: What is it and Why is it Beneficial?

So, what is sound therapy?

First, sound is vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear. Sound therapy uses sound, music, and specialist instrument combinations, with deep self-reflection techniques to improve health and wellbeing. This is believed to have dated back to ancient Greece (circa 500 BC) when music was used to cure mental disorders. Such use of sound has been used throughout history to boost morale in military troops, help humans work faster and more productively (hence modern gym beats), and even ward off evil spirits by chanting.

Overall, sound therapy is not a highly accessible form of therapy to those who may benefit from it. This is because accessibility is determined by the method of sound therapy used, and the resources of the individual looking to practice.

Now, let me tell you about the various techniques of sound therapy and hopefully you can find one that is accessible to you.

Sound therapy isn’t just lying on the ground to the sound of a gong. Simply listening to music, singing along to music, moving to the beat of music, and playing an instrument have all been proven to improve physical and emotional health and wellbeing. The voice is one of the main instruments used (probably because it’s the cheapest and most natural), as well as instruments such as singing bowls, bells, wind chimes, gongs, tuning forks, flutes, harps and drums.

Throughout history humans have tried numerous techniques of sound therapy including:

• Sound baths ^{1 2}
• Vibroacoustic Therapy ^{3 4}
• Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) ^{5 6 7 8}

What are the key benefits to sound therapy?

• Stress reduction
• Aids in helping insomnia, including quality of sleep
• Decreased anxiety levels and depression
• Mood significantly increased
• Improvement in memory helping those with dementia and post-traumatic stress
• Cancer reducing pain
• Helping with focus (particularly for those with Autism spectrum and attention deficit disorder (ADHD)
• Health of premature babies
• Boosting immune function
• Decreased risk of heart disease and stroke

It’s time for some science!

Sound therapy is powerful. It has the potential to re-emerge memories and instigate movement, fear, and relaxation. Scientific studies have found it could even impact the cells in your body. Dr. Lee Bartel set up numerous studies to explore how sound can stimulate cells in the body and brain to reduce the impact of Fibromyalgia pain (increased sensitivity to pain), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and increased blood flow. His studies tested the specific Hz (unit of frequency of one cycle period) that could increase patients wellbeing and found that F = 40 Hz produced the best (qualitative) results.

* A sine wave (curve representing periodic oscillations of constant amplitude as given by a sine function) with varying frequency.

Check out the Tedx Talk here if you find it easier to learn visually:

Or, if you prefer reading check the sources list at the bottom of this page ^{9 10 11}.

This is just an example of one scientific study: there’s plenty more out there!

Take home message

There is minimal risk to sound therapy… so why not pick up an instrument, find some sounds online or sing at different pitches and see what vibrations work for you!

Please note, this is just an introduction to my scientific writing; if you would like to find out more through in-depth research and how to apply this to boost wellbeing in your life, please get in touch.

Sources

1. Crowe, Barbara J., and Mary Scovel. An Overview of Sound Healing Practices: Implications for the Profession of Music Therapy, vol. 14, 1996, p. 28. https://academic.oup.com.
2. Auster, Sara. Sound Bath: Meditate, Heal and Connect through listening. Simon and Schuster, 2019.
3. Boyd-Brewer, Chris. Vibroacoustic Therapy: Sound Vibrations in Medicine, 2003.
4. Patrick, George. The Effects of Vibroacoustic Music on Symptom Reduction Inducing the Relaxation Response through Good Vibrations. 1999.
5. Punkanen, Marko, and Esa Ala-Ruona. “Contemporary Vibroacoustic Therapy: Perspectives on Clinical Practice, Research, and Training.” 2012. https://www.researchgate.net.
6. Hurley, Terry. 2017. Canyon Vista, Canyonvista.com.
7. Understanding ASMR, Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/basics/asmr.
8. Poerio, Giulia, et al. More than a feeling: Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is characterized by reliable changes in affect and physiology, 2018, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0196645.
9. Clements-Cortes, A, Ahonen, H., Evans, M., Tang-Wai., D., Freedman, M. & Bartel, L. (2017) Can Rhythmic Sensory Stimulation Decrease Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease? A Clinical Case Study Music & Medicine. Vol 9 No. 3. 174-177.
10. Clements-Cortes, A, Ahonen. H., Freedman, M. & Bartel, L. (2017) The Potential of Rhythmic Sensory Stimulation Treatments for Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease Music & Medicine. Vol 9 No. 3. 167-173.
11. Clements-Cortes, A., Ahonen, H., Evan, M, Freedman, M. & Bartel, L. (2016). Short term effects of rhythmic sensory stimulation in Alzheimer’s disease: An exploratory pilot study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 52(2). DOI 10.3233/JAD-160081.